Dressed photon as an interacting quantum field

Hirofumi Sakuma, Izumi Ojima, Motoichi Ohtsu

This article reviews recent progress in theoretical studies of dressed photons. For providing concrete physical images of dressed photons, several experimental studies are demonstrated. They are applications of dressed photons to novel optical functional devices, nano-fabrication technologies, energy conversion technologies, and photon breeding devices. After these experimental demonstrations, as the main part of this review, quantum-field theoretical formulation of dressed photons is attempted in use of the newly introduced Clebsch-dual variable of electromagnetic field. The reason for introducing the new formulation will be explained in the final section from the viewpoint to exhibit the contrast between free and interacting quantum fields in regard to their energy-momentum supports which are seldom touched upon (or forgotten) in the common physical discussions about quantum fields.

Kauzya Okamura

M. Allegrini, E. Arimondo

Specific properties of quantum field theory are described by considering the combination of the system under investigation and the cloud of virtual or real particles associated with the field. Such a structure is called a “dressed system”, in contrast with the bare one in the absence of the interaction with the field. The description of the properties of such clouds in various physical situations is, today, an active research area. Here, we present the main features associated with virtual and real dressings, focusing on photon dressing. In analogy to virtual photon clouds dressing electrons in vacuum, virtual phonon clouds appear in solid-state physics. The interaction between real photons and the schematized two-level structure of an atom paves the way to flexible quantum control. Here, a unifying Floquet engineering approach is applied to describe single- and multiple-dressed atom configurations. Connections with the past and present atomic physics experiments are presented.

Hayato Saigo

Glenn S. Solomon

Rui Zhuang, Qinyue Yang, Feng Zhou +4 more

A natural non- Hermitian system is constructed based on 85Rb atoms and multi-dressing fields. On this basis, the influence of different dressing fields on symmetry breaking and energy level degeneracy during four-photon spontaneous eight-wave mixing based on seventh-order nonlinear effects is investigated, and four-photon correlations are analyzed. When the dressing Rabi frequency dominates, the real part splits, leading to in phase constructive dressing, its symmetry breaking is localized, non-degenerate, Abelian and has low symmetry. When the dephase rate dominates, the imaginary part splits, leading to out-of-phase destructive dressing, its symmetry breaking is nonlocal, degenerate, non- Abelian and highly symmetric. The interactions between the dressing fields and the eigenvalue splitting modes of two double dressing effects that have third-order EPs are compared, and the role of the internal and external dressing fields in the formation of third-order EPs is clarified. The third-order non-Hermitian interaction between two dressing fields of the nested scheme is strongest and weakest for the parallel scheme, with the cascade scheme intermediate between them. This study is of value for the detection and quantum storage of quantum states.